Research

Currently, all living species in this world are classified by three different domains, the Archaea, Bacteria, and Eukaryota. Two domains out of the three, Archaea and Bacteria, are solely microorganisms, while the Eukaryote domain contains microbes and multicellular organisms. As a result, the majority of the living species on our planet are microorganisms. These microorganisms can be found anywhere. They inhabit and adapt to all types of environments that are inhabitable by the human species. Furthermore, they are able to live, adapt, and change human contaminated areas(Tshikantwa et al., 2018, p. 15). Although these microorganisms occupy the majority of our planet, the human species continue to place their needs and desires in the limelight. Hence, human thinking and logic are anthropomorphic as a result of lacking understanding of other living species. 

Throughout all the years of research, we have barely scratched a dent in learning about the knowledge and capabilities behind microbial ecosystems. As the human species have begun to realize the positive effects from understanding microorganisms and their interactions with humankind, the strive to comprehend these species have drastically impacted our scientific communities (Tshikantwa et al., 2018, p. 2). The comprehension of microbial interactions has helped develop new methods in wastewater treatments, disease prevention, drug development, food production, reducing heavy metal contamination, and more (Tshikantwa et al., 2018, p. 15). As scientists continue to discover forms of communication within microbial ecosystems and study genomics, humans can bring together “mechanistic and evolutionary approaches to providing solutions to possible life challenges” (Tshikantwa et al., 2018, p. 15). Furthermore, scientists have also discovered the adaptability of microbial communities in chemical environments. Through research, we have discovered that microbes work in community structures and adapt to environmental changes as a group (Wallenstein & Hall, 2012, p. 39). Microbial systems have complex social behaviors of communication, competition, cooperation, and synchronization between different microorganisms (West et al., 2007, p. 54). Depending on the elements within an environment, the microorganisms change their physiology and biochemistry differently, illustrating the possibilities of their adaptation (Poursat et al., 2019, p. 2225). According to Poursat et al., microbial ecosystems have the ability to acclimate and undergo a “a series of enzyme induction processes” resulting in “biochemical changes in order to initiate the biodegradation of a specific substrate”. Microbial communities are capable of much more than the current knowledge that humans have, so it is important to allow these other living species to have their own agency.

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As an attempt to speculate the possibility of A.M.R.S.A. , a nature-made microbial “robot”, we began our research in exploring how microbial biosensors have the potential to detect and quantify information, such as light levels, temperature, pH levels, and metabolic statuses (Lim et al., 2015, p. 2). These microbial detection systems suggest “new analytical methods for the identification of real, unknown multi-samples with improved selectivity” (Lim et al., 2015, p. 10). Although this type of sensor is still limited in ability and comprehension, it provides an opportunity to speculate a possible world where microbes have the ability to collect, assemble, and transfer quantifiable data. We can further speculate about the possibility of establishing a data-based communication between microbes and humans. 

In a distinctive scope of looking into microbial interconnectivity, researchers demonstrated a complicated connection in a host-microbiome system by building biomimetic robots using silico tool as hosts with a living microbiome (Heyde & Ruder, 2015, p. 4). By learning the framework of “Microbial consortia”, which is a microbial community that consists of multiple species living symbiotically and they shared intertwined biochemical networks, as well as being inspired by the emerging concept of synthetic biology and electrical engineering, researchers discovered that “a synthetic gene network”, which enabled possibilities on a potential understanding from connection between a living bacteria and a programmable biochemical network (Heyde & Ruder, 2015, p. 2). According to the experiment, the structure of these robots are envisioned to be in a modules system, which consists of an information exchanging process including chemical, optical and electrical signals. And with these signals that are constantly adapting and firing, the result is that the robot movements largely depend upon the biochemical network dynamics within the microbiome that is targeted as living cells (Heyde & Ruder, 2015, p. 6). Therefore, this concept has potential to be replicated into further development between the microbes and a possibly living interface as a host-microbiome interaction.

As the biochemical network indicated above, a specific behavioral pattern shown within a microbial connectivity is the result of many interactions among the ecosystem. And these are important components of a microbial interaction network. According to the researchers, a structure of the microbial interaction network can indicate an accurate inference of “a constructive mechanism” within their interactions by introducing ML with a fixed training set of models to predict and provide possible outcomes (Qu et al., 2019, p. 6). With this potential indication on computational intelligence methods, we can further speculate the use of data gathered within the microbial network and possibly create a connective channel of mutual understanding.

Looking at the research done by the references throughout our background research , there is a clear hierarchy in how humans perceive other living organisms. These organisms and their actions are classified as either beneficial or harmful towards humans, demonstrating the anthropomorphic view in our scientific communities which are generally regarded as non biased and “truthful”. Hence our speculative project attempts to provide the possibility for plant microbes to repopulate and reduce the destruction and pollution in human populated locations.